Friendly alpacas in every colour, running to greet us over the green fields of Karisma Alpacas.
One of Miriam's beautiful hand-made alpaca shawls - a delicate fantasy of softness and warmth.

First the Dixon Family:
Miriam Dixon of Karisma Animal Companions is never far from an alpaca or two.

Miriam
By now she needs little introduction. But under her passion and inspiration there is a great team working for Karisma Animal Companions.

Let us introduce you to them:
Pete at work at Karisma Animal Companions - here he is holding a cria prior to delivering it some medication.

Pete himself - Miriam's husband - the "Gentle Giant with Compassionate Hands" whose special talents adapt his hands to anything.

On the property side he designs and builds shelters, builds and maintains the fencing, does all other repairs and maintenance and generally runs the property.

When it comes to the animals he is the studmaster, the chief alpaca baby deliverer (or midwife) , the alpaca doctor and nurse and last but not least primo shearer.

Karen - is the Dixon's elder daughter. She has two daughters of her own, Hayley and Shelley. The family are now back from their OE and Miriam can now look forward to Karen's input into Karisma's handcraft designs and to the help she provides with Alpaca Show promotion. Karen is the Karisma fashion adviser who, (with the support of her daughter Shelley) also helps with training and showing of the animals.

Nigel - The Dixon's son. Nigel is an ex-butcher, so he is kept at a safe distance from the alpacas! But he is a great help at haymaking season, an expert fixer-upper of vehicles, and family supporter.

Kerensa - The younger Dixon daughter is a hairdresser and so of course she is our rope-in for shearing, where she uses her wonderful caring hands to produce a stylish shear. Especially appreciated by the vainer ones among our female 'pacas. Her children are alpaca friends and feature in some of our photos.

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Next - the Extended Family:

Joyce - who is an all-rounder and helps as sewer, knitter, nurse, rouser, trainer of 'pacas and our "up front" person for presenting animals at alpaca shows. She is helped and supported by her daughter Katia who can coax any alpaca to perform any request. Joyce's younger son Kian, has also been successful showing alpacas in "Junior Handler" and "Pet Performance".

Teresa - who lives on site and really does the hard yards of cleaning and caring for alpacas as well as helping in the workshop on the creative fibre side.

Meg - our most important alpaca crisis supporter.

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Finally - the Band of Magical Helpers . . .
whose nimble fingers work their daily wizardry transforming our faerie alpaca fleeces into warm and delicate raiment fit for an elvish princess or the Queen of Faerie herself.

Heather - this special lady, of the enchanted spinning technique (has she been trained by Rumpelstiltskin?)creates our range of woven wear including scarves, and it is she who adds the delicate traceries of macramé which provide the finishing touches to Miriam's special felting. In her spare moments she knits garments and is also experimenting with dyeing alpaca fibre. Heather is pictured at right spinning in the Karisma Animal Companions' workshop.

Margaret B - Miriam's bridesmaid and great friend since childhood is a dab hand at knitting and crochet.

Glee - Miriam's cousin is a knitwear expert whose input is invaluable to the team.

Jan - A friend of many years, spins beautiful fine alpaca yarns for the team's creations and also finds time to produce delightful knitwear.

Margaret from Ngaruawahia - What a gem! Miriam's ideas are picked up and expanded into designer knits from this wonderful knitter.

June - Peter's sister, our knitter of gloves, and cosy booties for those special little newly-arrived members of our families.
Heather, dressed in a glorious Alpaca shawl, spins on her beautiful wooden spinning wheel and is surrounded by richly coloured alpaca yarns, fleeces and textiles.

But there are more . . . Pat . . .and Glenise . . . and Joyce . . . What a crew! Every one of them a treasure to the team and every one of them in love with "The Fibre of the Gods".

If you want to contact us, please phone us at New Zealand 07 8481799 or our physical address is 238 Howden Road, RD9, Hamilton, New Zealand. Or feel free to. . .